Life and career

Bettis was born in Austin, Texas, to Mary Lynn (née Guthrie) and Richard Joseph Bettis, and graduated from Westlake High School.

Her debut role was a lead in the romantic tragedy, Sparrow, directed by Franco Zeffirelli, at the age of eighteen. After that film she attended The American Musical and Dramatic Academy. She later went on to star in a film called The Last Best Sunday, before supporting Winona Ryder in Girl, Interrupted and Kim Basinger in Bless the Child.

In 2002, she starred as Abigail Williams in a production of The Crucible on Broadway alongside Laura Linney and Liam Neeson.

Bettis is most famous for her work in independent horror films, and especially her working relationship with writer/director Lucky McKee. Her title role in McKee's 2002 film May won her something of a cult following. Since then, she has appeared in McKee's Masters of Horror episode, "Sick Girl", and provided a voice-over for his film The Woods. In 2006, their May roles reversed, when McKee acted for Bettis in her directorial debut, Roman, based on a McKee script. In 2011, she played a major role in McKee's adaptation of Jack Ketchum's The Woman.

Bettis starred as Carrie White in Carrie, a made-for-TV remake of Brian De Palma's 1976 classic, and headlined Tobe Hooper's Toolbox Murders, an in-name-only remake of an obscure 1970s horror film. She also starred in the crime thriller Scar.

She had a recurring role on the TV show Dexter's fifth season as Emily Birch, the first victim of Jordan Chase.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1993	Sparrow	Maria	Storia di una capinera original title
1999	The Last Best Sunday	Lolly Ann Summers
1999	Girl, Interrupted	Janet Webber
2000	Bless the Child	Jenna O'Connor
2001	Perfume	Wilemina
2001	Vallen	Caitlin
2002	People Are Dead	Angela the Broadway actress	Producer
2002	May	May Dove Canady	Catalonian International Film Festival for Best Actress Silver Raven on the Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Actress Málaga International Week of Fantastic Cinema Award for Best Actress Nominated — Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress
2002	Coastlines	Effie Bender
2003	Hollywould	Holly	Short film
2004	Toolbox Murders	Nell Barrows	Nominated — Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Actress
2004	Love Rome	Mary
2005	The Circle	Jay	Experimental film shot in a long take
2005	Last Days of America	America the Woman	Short film
2006	The Woods	Voice in the Woods	Voice
2006	Roman	Elixer Bluff Acting Troup	Also director, voice
2007	When Is Tomorrow	Rachel	Producer
2007	Scar	Joan Burrows
2008	Wicked Lake	The Mother
2008	Blue Like You	Red	Short film
2010	Drones	Amy
2010	All My Friends Are Funeral Singers	Zel
2010	My Alien Mother	Mother	Producer
2011	The Woman	Belle Cleek
2011	Legs	Jen	Producer
2012	Sinister	Fran	Scenes deleted
2015	Weightless		Post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Touched by an Angel	Laura	Episode: "Beautiful Dreamer"
1998	Legacy	Jenna	Episode 1.4
1999	Sliders	Jill	Episode: "New Gods for Old"
2001	The Flamingo Rising	Alice King	Television Movie
2001	The Ponder Heart	Bonnie Dee Peacock	Television movie
2002	Carrie	Carrie White	Television movie
2006	Masters of Horror	Ida Teeter	Episode: "Sick Girl"
2009	House	Susan	Episode: "Broken"
2010	Dexter	Emily Birch	Episodes: "Hop a Freighter", "In the Beginning"
2010-2011	CSI	Rosalind Johnson	3 episodes
2013	Criminal Minds	Tess Mynock	Episode: "Alchemy"
2013	Twisted Tales	Lidia	Segment: "Shockwave"
2015	Dig	Fay

Producer

Year	Title	Notes
2001	Lovindapocalypse	video documentary
2002	People Are Dead
2002	Lovindapocalypse 2	video documentary
2003	Hollywould	Short film
2003	Lovindapocalypse 3	video documentary
2005	Last Days of America	Short Film
2007	When Is Tomorrow
2011	Legs

Director

Year	Title	Notes
2009	Roman	Voice
2012	The ABCs of Death	Segment: "E Is for Exterminate"

[ Source: Wikipedia ]